


Darlin'

by TheNightingaleLily



Series: Johnny/Female V One Shots [15]
Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 21:20:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30078486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNightingaleLily/pseuds/TheNightingaleLily
Relationships: Johnny Silverhand/V
Series: Johnny/Female V One Shots [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2121597
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	Darlin'

“Lookin’ good, darlin’.”

Tess froze with her arm halfway through the sleeve of her jacket. Somehow, she could  _ feel _ Johnny recoil as her rage bubbled up inside her, and she pivoted on her heels to face where she knew his flickering form was standing.

“The  _ fuck _ did you just call me??”

She expected to see that annoying smirk of his, but to her surprise—and confusion—what she saw was shock, like he hadn’t been expecting her hostility. Did he  _ think _ she would react well to that?

“I am not your  _ darlin’, _ Texan fuckboy, and if you call me that again I’m popping a blocker.” Tess yanked the sleeve the rest of the way down and jabbed her other arm through the other sleeve, and she stomped across the apartment in a huff.

What was even  _ more _ surprising than his shock was the fact that he didn’t argue against her words. He actually  _ shut up _ for once.

~~~

“Where is that fucking…” Tess mumbled. The shard she was looking for was proving illusive and she cursed under her breath as she rummaged through drawers.

“Over here, darlin’,” Johnny spoke up from somewhere to her left. Tess looked over and sure enough, he was standing next to a shard case. A quick scan told her it was the one she needed.

“I told you to stop that,” she snapped, as she pocketed the shard. “We’re fucking, not dating. No fuckin’ pet names.”

“Hm. If you say so,” Johnny said, a tinge of annoyance to his voice.

A couple weeks ago, he would have tacked on an extra exaggerated  _ darlin’  _ to the end of that sentence just to annoy her, but now he sounded almost  _ apologetic. _

Nah, that was probably just the Relic fucking with her head.

~~~

Making out with her cyberghost time bomb in the back alley behind Lizzie’s was not where Tess expected her life to end up, but, well.

“Unzip your pants,” Johnny growled.

“Hell no, not here, I don’t want some passing junkie to see me humping the air.”

“Oh but making out with the air is fine.”

Tess paused a moment. “...fine, you have a point, just—let’s get to the car.”

As she turned around, Johnny appeared next to her and gave her the biggest grin.

“Lead the way, darlin’.”

Oh. Interesting. Instead of the usual annoyance at the word, Tess’s heart jumped.

“Fuck off,” she mumbled, but even she could tell the words fell flat.

“No no, you’re supposed to say ‘fuck you’,” Johnny instructed, walking backwards ahead of her, “and then I say ‘fuck me yourself’.”

Despite her best efforts to stop it, Tess giggled, actually  _ giggled.  _ What the  _ fuck. _

“You didn’t hear that,” she snapped.

~~~

“Rise an’ shine, V.”

Tess rolled over and waved her arm at the general direction she heard his voice coming from.

“Snooze,” she groaned.

“No can do, got a job in an hour.” Tess heard his voice closer this time and she peeked an eye open to see him sitting on the edge of her bed. “Up ya get, darlin’.”

“Mmmm, fine.”

She never got how it was always so damn cold in the morning, even as the brutal California summer approached. For the briefest of moments, she wished Johnny was flesh and blood so he could keep her warm as she went about her morning routine. 

It was a wish she very quickly banished from her mind.

“You don’t tell me to fuck off anymore.”

“I tell you to fuck off plenty,” Tess replied as she shuffled her way to the bathroom.

“Nah, I mean when I call you  _ darlin’. _ ” He spoke the last word in an exaggerated version of the southern drawl that always accompanied it. “You haven’t complained in a while, actually. Startin’ to warm up to me?” he grinned.

_ Yes. _

“No. Just no point, is there? You won’t stop no matter how much I bitch.” Fuck, she was too tired for this conversation. She had trouble masking her emotions from him when she was tired.

_ Oh god, does that mean there are emotions to mask? _

“I would,” Johnny said casually, but he wasn’t so great at masking his emotions either, apparently. “If you asked.”

“I  _ have _ asked.”

“Mm-mm. You’ve demanded, told me to fuck off, never asked.”

Tess sighed. “Whatever,” she grumbled. What was his point?

Johnny materialized beside her— _ very close _ beside her—leaning against the sink counter.

“So?” he asked. His voice was unexpectedly gentle. “You gonna ask me to stop?”

Tess stared at her hand, gripping the countertop, Johnny’s metal hand inches away. 

It was  _ too early  _ for this.

But that meant she was too tired to deflect.

So with a breathy chuckle, placing her hand over his, she said, “Nah. Don’t think I am.”


End file.
